The January 29th Idaho Press-Tribune published side-by-side op-ed columns by Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue and Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney on the subject of proposed civilian disarmament measures. Sheriff Donahue condemns Barrack Obama’s civilian disarmament as “political posturing,” while professing his confidence that “Congress would not be so foolish as to let anyone strip us of our Second Amendment rights.”

According to Donahue, “Law-abiding citizens have every right to own legal firearms….” On this reasoning, the government can criminalize ownership of certain kinds of firearms. Significantly, Donahue admits that he has taken part in federally supervised gun confiscation. He proudly recalls working with “dedicated ATF agents and other local law enforcement officers to keep illegal guns, like sawed-off shotguns, off our streets and enforce laws prohibiting felons from owning or possessing firearms."

For his part, Sheriff Raney reiterated his willingness to carry out any gun confiscation measure enacted by Congress.

Donahue and Raney have collaborated to produce a museum-quality example of the controlled dialectic at work in the campaign to disarm the public. Both of these sheriffs will carry out orders to confiscate personal firearms. They've just tailored their respective rhetorical approaches for different constituencies.